Freedom, but not quite
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Spoilers for the first book and movie. Lisbeth Salander has managed to leave Sweden on holiday after the events in the first story, but realises she has no real freedom...


I love the Millennium trilogy and the movies with Noomi Rapace, and I've wanted to write something about the series for a long time. This is my first Millennium one-shot, and I am so excited to upload it today.

I don't own anything by the way.

Enjoy, and please leave feedback.

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Freedom, but not Quite.

As she got out of the limo, nodding politely to the man who had opened the door and stood aside to let her get out, Lisbeth Salander couldn't help but reflect on how well things were going as she adopted her Irene Nesser persona which she had developed quite quickly in order to move around freely in other countries. The money she had stolen from Wennerstrom who should really have been more careful with his computer security instead of becoming too complacent; you'd think someone who had connections into organised crime, prostitution included, would have known better than to have a computer that was easy enough to hack, though it was clear from the security that had been present at the time Wennerstrom had been convinced no-one would even dare to try, and that was a fatal mistake.

A part of her wondered what was happening to the corrupt little businessman, but she quickly decided she didn't care. Kalle bastard Blomkvist was probably tearing him to shreds.

At the thought of Blomkvist, Salander had to concentrate on not letting any emotion cross her face and pass through her Irene Nesser persona - she was still in the presence of the chauffeur, and the last thing she wanted to do was to answer any questions, concerned though they may be, and the less the driver knew about her, the better.

She should have known Blomkvist wouldn't have been interested in someone like her. Why would he, when he had that bitch Berger to suck his cock? Okay, so she had thought he was a nice, funny guy, and he had managed to get under her skin when he had turned up unexpectedly at her apartment after he'd made the intuitive leap which truthfully wasn't that difficult to work out, given she had made the stupid mistake to send him information that he would know came from his computer (Lisbeth still couldn't work out why she had given Blomkvist so many clues that she had hacked his computer, it was the mistake an amateur would have made, not an experienced one), but she had to admit it had been fun to work with someone as part of a team. They worked well, she had noted, and she had made the foolish mistake of thinking they might have a relationship, and she could have a normal existence without worrying about people like Teleborian or Bjurman while she could still visit her mother who was in the hospital and yet barely recognised her own daughter.

As she gave the driver some instructions, which he nodded to willingly with a professional ease Lisbeth couldn't help but admire, she walked down the esplanade and looked out over the sea. It was warmer here than her native Sweden was at the moment, which was an improvement if it felt…. so odd being here, but she was determined to have fun, especially without the issue of her Declaration of Incompetence hanging over her head like the sword of Damocles.

Lisbeth couldn't think about the declaration that had been a further punch to the face than her wreck of a childhood had been, but even she could see that the declaration was better than being stuck in that hellhole with that pig Peter Teleborian blocking her view, smirking at her as she struggled under those fucking restraints which had been imprisoning her for so long to the point where she had even welcomed death in order to get some release, anything to get away from the stench of the evil bastard's foul aftershave, his ugly face and his arrogance.

But even when she had gotten out of St Stefans' she had still found it hard not to be disgusted with the way the Swedish people treated her though she had learnt a long time ago never to trust anyone. No-one had stopped the abuse Zalachenko, her biological father, had heaped on her mother's shoulders; Camilla hadn't cared about what happened to her mother, and she hadn't lifted a finger to stop the police from committing that travesty of justice for reasons she couldn't even begin to care about now, and now Lisbeth hoped she never encountered her only fully functional blood relative again, because if she did Camilla was going to find herself six feet under.

Lisbeth was sure her bastard father was out there somewhere, but she doubted he would be much of a threat. She had tried looking for him only once after she had gotten out of St Stefan's, but the search had not turned anything up. It was almost as though the bastard had disappeared.

After deciding not to dwell on her father and her past, for the time being, she took a deep breath of fresh, clean air. Again it was completely different from the air she had breathed in most of her life, but it was still quite lovely. Lisbeth felt free here, probably for the first time in her life, but she knew she was not completely free; her declaration of incompetence was still hanging over her head, not to mention the rape she'd endured by her 'guardian', Bjurman.

There was no doubt in her mind Bjurman would do as she had instructed, which was to send off reports saying she was doing well and that soon there would be no need for her to have a guardian; the DVD she had recorded of him raping her would ensure he did as he was told since he wouldn't want anything like that getting out and destroying his life, but she also had no doubt he would try to make some stupid decision where he would try to find a way of getting the evidence off of her. He would probably try to go to her apartment and root around, or more likely hire someone to do the dirty work for him.

They wouldn't get it.

Lisbeth had the DVD with her, and besides, she had already uploaded it onto the internet in a secure place. Even if Bjurman made the stupid mistake to have her killed, the whole disgusting video would be released online, and everyone would know what Nils Bjurman was like to 'vulnerable, mentally handicapped people' His reputation would be wrecked, and even the Swedish government were not stupid or callous enough to cover that up, especially if everyone saw it. If that wasn't a kick in the face to the bastards, she didn't know what wasn't.

As she thought about Bjurman, Lisbeth made a mental note to check on his computer to see if he was keeping up his own end of the bargain, though when she returned to Sweden she would do a little bit of cat burglary to make sure the sneaky bastard was not trying to pull anything incredibly unwise on her. She wouldn't kill him even if it was intimidating; Bjurman was a nasty raping bastard, the sort of person she would never hesitate to murder considering how much she hated men who hated women and caused them nothing but pain and misery. She needed the slippery man to pull the strings so she would never have need of a guardian for the rest of her life.

_Ah, so many plans, so many things to do, so little time,_ she thought to herself.

For the time being, however, Lisbeth decided to enjoy her time away from Sweden. She wasn't in any hurry to return; aside from Mimmi and Armansky, no-one would really care about her absence. Her job at Milton Security, while interesting, had gradually become boring and tedious for her until she had reached the point where she simply didn't care about it. It was amazingly pathetic how ignorant people were when it came to their own online security, and with the small fortune she had taken from under Wennerstrom's nose, maybe she could do it again.

_Hmm,_ she thought to herself with a sly smirk as she considered her options for the future, _while Hacker's Republic frowns on things like that, it doesn't really matter to me in the long term._

As she stood watching the ocean, Lisbeth let herself relax, but not too much. If there was one thing she had learnt in her life it was never to get too comfortable. Comfort could kill. She liked it here, she really did, and it was only going to get better since she was going to travel around, but the problem was she couldn't relax completely.

She felt free here, but as she looked over the ocean, she knew it was a mirage


End file.
